With "In Bruges," writer-director Martin McDonagh has made the movie that Guy Ritchie kept trying to make a few years ago. It's a story of criminals, with lots of working-class Irish banter, colorful characters, absurd situations and an intricate and irresistible plotline. Ritchie never succeeded. His dialogue was never clever enough; his characters never got off the page, and his plots were impenetrable. But McDonagh has done it with enviable ease, right out of the starting gate with his first feature.

But then McDonagh is a very talented guy. In his other life, he's a playwright, with a string of Broadway and West End hits to his credit, including "The Pillowman," which is one of the best plays of recent years. "In Bruges" is not an achievement on that scale, nowhere near it. At the same time, compared with most movies, this is something very fine - not just witty and lively, but with a soul to it, as well. That soul comes out in three complicated comic performances and in the conscience that informs and underlies the story.

The film represents one of the few completely successful comic treatments of hit men in movies, usually a sour subject. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are the professional killers, who are sent by their boss to Bruges, Belgium, after a disastrously botched job. Bruges is a beautiful medieval city, with canals and museums and buildings from the 12th century, but as soon as Ray (Farrell) arrives, he thinks it's a dump, while Ken (Gleeson), his partner, loves it.

Through his actors and through hints in the dialogue, McDonagh is able to suggest a lot about these men and their backgrounds. Gleeson brings a sad humanity to Ken, whose life went off course years ago, the result of some calamity. Meanwhile Ray is in turmoil, a young guy of basically decent instincts, who's not too smart and has made a terrible choice. It's a tribute to McDonagh's skill that the film can remain essentially comic, while doing justice to the characters' guilt and self-questioning.

In the past few months, with "Cassandra's Dream" and now this, we've found out something about Farrell. He's not a matinee idol, and he's not a suave or heroic leading man. He's a terrific character actor, and he can go to low places that suave heroes can't risk, like anguish, self-hatred, embarrassment, utter confusion and buffoonery. That's his address as an actor, low status, inner conflict and the impulse to break free through reckless action. This role couldn't be more in his zone.

Though the plot is always moving forward, McDonagh knows when to ease off the pedal and lavish time on a scene, or take a moment to satirize the travel experience. In the course of their sightseeing, the hit men run into Americans who either: 1) are enormously, spectacularly obese, 2) get apoplectic if people are smoking around them or 3) keep apologizing for being American. As anyone who has traveled abroad in recent years can testify, McDonagh's not making this stuff up.

Half the fun of "In Bruges" is in how it unfolds, and so talk about the story is best left to a minimum. The guys are in a lovely medieval city around Christmastime, taking in the sites and experiencing civilization at its best, while internally absorbing the contrast between the environment and their function in it. They're waiting for a call from their boss, maybe to do another job.

McDonagh is gifted enough that even minor characters are vivid in the moment. Every conversation is not just an opportunity to move the story along but to do something new that surprises or delights. When Ralph Fiennes shows up as the boss, he's not the usual Fiennes. He's a cockney, contained in manner, clipped in speech, but always spilling over into rage. It all comes through, the character's nonstop sense of aggrievement, the limits of thinking, and his specific and sincerely held notions of personal honor.

These shadings, dimensions and notions are slipped in under the radar, just as a consequence of McDonagh's telling the truth, moment to moment. "In Bruges" is not a great movie, but there's no mistaking that it's the product of a great talent.

-- Advisory: This film contains sex talk, sexual situations, drug use and graphic, disturbing violence. This is not for children.

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